UAE tops 50C in highest May temperature on record

The United Arab Emirates registered a sizzling 50.4 degrees Celsius on Friday, the highest on record for May, following weeks of sweltering temperatures in the desert nation acutely vulnerable to climate change. 

The highest temperature was recorded in an area of Abu Dhabi, the capital of the oil-rich Gulf state that lies in one of the world's hottest regions. 

The UAE, one of the world's biggest oil exporters and host of the COP28 climate talks in 2023, has just emerged from a record-breaking April with an average daily high of 42.6 degrees Celsius. According to a Greenpeace study in 2022, which focused on six countries including the UAE, found the region was warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, making its food and water supplies "extremely vulnerable" to climate change.